Sherman residents celebrate 125 years of small town life

SHERMAN – Dixie Mitchell helped celebrate Sherman’s 125th birthday Saturday by serving cake to community members at the town’s celebration.
Mitchell was also a cake server 25 years ago for the town’s 100th anniversary celebration.
“Everything went off really well and I never dreamed I would be here for this second celebration,” she said. “But, I told them not to count on me for the next one.”
Close to 100 residents stopped by Sherman Town Hall for cake, music and fellowship.
“This is our 125th anniversary and we patterned it after what we did for the centennial,” said Founders Day committee member Martha Swindle. “They did a cookbook with all the businesses, homes and history so we tried to cover the last 25 years with another cookbook.”
The books are on sale for $20 and can be purchased at town hall.
The history in the new 125th anniversary cookbook talks about the town’s growth in the 2000s and the announcement of Toyota coming to the area, bringing a Toyota supplier to the municipality.
Mayor Ben Logan said he’s had a lot of fun living in the town with his family since they moved from Tupelo more than a decade ago.
“We had a tackle football team here and threw a jamboree with lots of teams from as far as Batesville and Caledonia,” he remembered. “We had 3,500 people show up at the same time for the opening ceremony and you couldn’t even get off the interstate because there were so many people in our small town.”
Mitchell said in her mind Sherman is the only town. She moved to Mississippi with her family after college and said she married Guy Mitchell so she could stay in Sherman when her family moved to Tennessee.
“Every two weeks I visit the nursing home and go to Walmart for groceries,” she said. “If I think of something else I want to do, my car will just start to head back toward Sherman and I can’t get it to go anywhere else.”
Cinda Baker also served cake at the event. Her mother was a server for the centennial celebration.
“I’ve lived here since I was a child,” she said. “After I got married I moved to Tupelo but I came back to Sherman.”
Every year, some of Sherman’s church congregations come together for Easter services and Baker said those are some of her favorite times.
“Seeing everyone I knew when I was young is really nice,” she said. “I didn’t think I wanted to come back to Sherman but I’ve really enjoyed it. My mom always called me Cinda Kay and for years I didn’t hear that but when I came back to Sherman I knew I was home because it was, ‘Cinda Kay, this,’ and, ‘Cinda Kay, that.’”
jb.clark@journalinc.com